because the past is full of clues and the present is lovely

Toothpaste Notes

I woke up this morning to three toothpaste adhered notes to the doors and walls. On the door leading to the attic it said, “Wake me up at 10:15 so I can get to class. “, another door said, “Wake me up early so I can have a happy life.”, the third door note said, “Bunny (the favorite white cat) threw up three times last night and we are worried.” I was still groggy and the coffee aroma was coming up the staircase. I followed my nose and found a bubbling pot of oatmeal with apples and cinnamon. Hmmm, that meant the healthy food contingent was about to leave for class.

The so called sickly cat greeted me with a loud meow. She was asking for her morning treat of wet food. I looked at her carefully, she looked at me. We agreed that we were both okay.

As I was turning on a second computer two pony-tailed daughters bounced out the door, “Bye Mama!Don’t forget the dinner party!”

Yes, we have guests for dinner tonight and I am making it very easy by cooking something that cooks itself and demands seconds. Good old spaghetti. Two sauces, one beef the other vegetarian.

The morning was taken up with reading two newspapers, teaching, writing a grocery list, prepping the kitchen, and keeping the dog quiet while Bud was fielding calls.

Mercy came home for lunch and sped out again. AM came home to go grocery shopping and went back to school. Somewhere in there Rosie found her shoes and went on the store trip. Somewhere in there JM woke up before 10:15 and left for school.

The new phone rings with the previous number owner’s leftover life. All day long this new Comcast number rings with toll-free numbers and offers for free trials. We are going to ask yet again, for another unused number. If you want to find me, email me or call my cell. This land line business is getting silly.

I have to write two stories and come up with a controversy. What shall it be? The Casino? The train that was promised by Governors Weld, Celucci, Swift, and Romney? How about the Botulinum Lab at UMass?

I read a story in the New York Times today about “Mommy Makeovers” a trio of plastic surgery procedures that restore a mommy body into a pre-baby body. 300,000 women a year sign up for this and pay from $10,000 to $30,000 for the procedures.

I cannot imagine, choosing surgery with all its sedation, cutting, stitching, pain and recovery to look like someone from your own past, probably someone you wouldn’t want to be again! When I came of age back in the 70’s there was a feminist revolution going on, what happened?

We walk around feeling life in our skin, and seeing life from our eyes, and thinking (hopefully) thoughts that are coming from our own brains and emanating forth. Of course childbirth changes your body. That isn’t a bad thing. It just is.

One particularly sad quote, ““I don’t think it was an issue for my mother; your husband loved you no matter what.”

Husbands are supposed to love their wives no matter what. Wives are supposed to love their husbands. Certainly major surgery is a high price to pay for shallow love. I would hope that women would love themselves and the bodies that have carried their spirits through life. The ones who are raking it in are the plastic surgeons who gladly peddle pain in the guise of a magic wand.

Here’s to wrinkles, stretchmarks and gray hair. My fifty year old husband loves me no matter what. I have children. I am alive. I am loved.